Its been hot here, 100F+ for the past week or so, today was 102. When I first start the car the outside temperature gauge reads - - - for about a half a mile then will record the temperature 101 whatever.

Is this unusual or a common hot weather thing. Got the car last September so it never got that hot & I have never seen this happen when the temperature was under say 98-99F

 

It's the logic of the temperature gauge I think, but check this out:
https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...perature+gauge

 

It's normal,

The local/ambient temp at the sensor is exceeding it's parameters. Driving a ways cools it down and it reads the app temp.

(Check your manual. "Sitting", the max temp was probably exceeded etc..)

Mine has done this several times here in TX..

 

Thought it might be something like that since it cleared with some motion & has only happened at 100+ outside temp. Thanks for the replys

 

For me the temp gauge has been somewhat glitchy since pretty early on (15 month old '06 TL here). I've had the "---" once or twice, but much more frequent is that I find the temp to be off, sometimes way off. For example yesterday here in San Jose the high was 88, but the gauge was showing 93-95 all afternoon. Also last summer there were a few days when the temp was 100+, and it was showing something in the 70's several times. Lots of other funky stuff like that. And there seems to be a theme that hot temps give the gauge the most trouble.

Doesn't bother me much at the end of the day. The exact temp is not that critical for me to know. And seeing that other thread about how complex the logic is, all the more reason just to leave it alone.

 

Yeah.. it's not a perfect reading, and there are adjustments that can be made.. just remember it's in a car that sits in the sun.. drives in the rain.. sits next to a radiator.. has air passing through it, etc.. +/- 3 - 5 degrees no biggy.. better than not having it at all!

 

Someone posted elsewhere (IIRC) that the reason the thermocouple is in the bumper, fairly near to the road, is so that you, the driver, will know when the air temp near the road gets close to 32*F. That allows you to take appropriate precautions wrt ice.

The thing that makes me think this is plausible is an Acura Tech Line article on the temp guage showed that it was calibrated by putting it in and Ice Water bath and adjusting the readout accordingly.